The Cult of Femininity

The Cult of Femininity

Micol Fontana

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816675784.003.0003

This chapter presents a conversation with designer Micol Fontana, who at ninety-four, has lost none of her vivacity and energy. She recalls the 1950s and 1960s, when Rome became the capital of high fashion, the favorite of beautiful people, from princesses in exile to Hollywood actresses, from high-society ladies to artists. According to Micol, after 1948 “in the Italy that was ready to live its second rebirth, the cult of femininity exploded and immediately made converts. Not the cult of beauty…but of femininity, precisely, the new way of being a woman, joyful and carefree.” Arriving in Rome from the province of Reggio-Emilia in 1936, Micol and her late sisters, Giovanna and Zoe, worked as helpers in various seamstress workshops for several years. They later founded their first atelier, integrating themselves perfectly into the fabric of the big city and becoming the toast of foreigners staying in Rome.

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